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Raiders of the Serpent Sea - Third Party 5E Review
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<blockquote data-quote="Sparky McDibben" data-source="post: 9201986" data-attributes="member: 7041430"><p>Hey folks, earlier this year, I posted a review of <em>Raiders of the Serpent Sea</em> to Giant in the Playground forums. Sadly, it got nuked into unreadability by the moderators over there (not their fault, I was posting copies of maps and art and they were concerned with getting sued). So I figured I'd repost it over here, and see what y'all think. If there's anything that doesn't make sense, that's probably just poor editing on my part. </p><p></p><p>I decided to review this particular work because I didn't really find any other reviews (although it looks like Justin Alexander might be doing one), nor did I see any on DrivethruRPG.com. So, I figured that I should take Kim Kardashian's advice and "Be the change I want to see in the world."</p><p></p><p>By which I mean I'm going to download a 500 page mega-adventure and review the whole darned thing. And if you're thinking, "This sounds like a fun trainwreck to watch," well then friend, pull up a chair and crack your beverage of choice while you watch me lose my mind.</p><p></p><p>So, to start, SPOILERS: There will be spoilers. Duh. I'm reviewing the product, and that involves evaluating portions of the story, too. So if you are playing in this, I recommend not reading any further. If you are looking to run this, I think you are a cool person and I respect your dedication to the craft. Hop on board and let me know if you think I'm off base with any of my critiques. If you are looking to run this and a law enforcement officer, you're a wonderful human being and I don't know anything about what happened with that chinchilla ranch.</p><p></p><p>Alright, now on to the actual review. I purchased the <em>Raiders of the Serpent Sea Campaign Guide</em> (PDF version) for $25 on 2/3/2023. At 498 pages, that clocks in at about 5 cents per page. Note that this review is only for the Campaign Guide.</p><p></p><p><strong>First Impressions:</strong></p><p></p><p>The layout is...not great. The book is very, very wordy. It's also confusingly organized, almost like it's not meant to be run at the table, but more as a prep reference. I'll highlight specific instances of this as we go through, but as an example, the book makes multiple references to something called the <em>GM's Reference.</em> Well, try as I might, searching both the <em>Campaign Book</em> and the <em>Player's Guide,</em> I couldn't find the <em>GM's Reference.</em> So eventually I brute-forced it (searched the <em>Campaign Book)</em> and found that the <em>GM's Reference</em> is actually a digital add-on that's only available if you bought the VTT maps, but if you send an e-mail to an e-mail address, they'll shoot you a copy.</p><p></p><p>And hey, that'd be great if the <em>GM's Reference</em> was just a few cleaned up tables or something, but this document contains the inspirational media, potential content warnings, customizing backgrounds, modifying difficulty for party size, etc. It's kind of important! And it's free and just an email away, but why the hell wasn't it included in the original document? Y'all already hit 500 pages!</p><p></p><p>The writing is decent, but again, wordy. This should have been far fewer pages than they ultimately used. For example, there are a ton of references to a character who, explicitly, will never be directly encountered during the adventure. And like, that's great? But also, if the PCs never encounter something, nor are acted upon by it, <em>then the something does not exist in the game.</em> All this crap does is give me more cognitive load to deal with. Just cut the darned character and give me something actionable.</p><p></p><p>However, the art is absolutely sumptuous. Like, it's so good it makes me <em>mad.</em> Look at this feisty murder-queen:</p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/40kBFqT.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>I immediately want to know who the hell this lady is! What is her deal? And it pisses me off that this is the title page of the book, <em>so there's no additional detail.</em> Please call out your suggestions, because I'm curious what y'all think.</p><p></p><p>So that's my general overall impressions of the text. I'll be proceeding in my usual chapter-by-chapter fashion through the rest of the book's 12 chapters and seven appendices, because I hate myself and seek misery rather than happiness (I'm kidding - it's because I'm a workaholic).</p><p></p><p>Also, I'm stealing this bit from Libertad's excellent review of <a href="https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610109-Let-s-Read-Odyssey-of-the-Dragonlords" target="_blank">Odyssey of the Dragonlords:</a></p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="Bioware Trope Alert!"]</p><p>There's a ton of stuff in this adventure that borrows heavily from well-established Bioware tropes. If you're a fan of <em>Dragon Age</em> or <em>Mass Effect,</em> keep an eye out for these to see how these tropes get implemented at the tabletop!</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sparky McDibben, post: 9201986, member: 7041430"] Hey folks, earlier this year, I posted a review of [I]Raiders of the Serpent Sea[/I] to Giant in the Playground forums. Sadly, it got nuked into unreadability by the moderators over there (not their fault, I was posting copies of maps and art and they were concerned with getting sued). So I figured I'd repost it over here, and see what y'all think. If there's anything that doesn't make sense, that's probably just poor editing on my part. I decided to review this particular work because I didn't really find any other reviews (although it looks like Justin Alexander might be doing one), nor did I see any on DrivethruRPG.com. So, I figured that I should take Kim Kardashian's advice and "Be the change I want to see in the world." By which I mean I'm going to download a 500 page mega-adventure and review the whole darned thing. And if you're thinking, "This sounds like a fun trainwreck to watch," well then friend, pull up a chair and crack your beverage of choice while you watch me lose my mind. So, to start, SPOILERS: There will be spoilers. Duh. I'm reviewing the product, and that involves evaluating portions of the story, too. So if you are playing in this, I recommend not reading any further. If you are looking to run this, I think you are a cool person and I respect your dedication to the craft. Hop on board and let me know if you think I'm off base with any of my critiques. If you are looking to run this and a law enforcement officer, you're a wonderful human being and I don't know anything about what happened with that chinchilla ranch. Alright, now on to the actual review. I purchased the [I]Raiders of the Serpent Sea Campaign Guide[/I] (PDF version) for $25 on 2/3/2023. At 498 pages, that clocks in at about 5 cents per page. Note that this review is only for the Campaign Guide. [B]First Impressions:[/B] The layout is...not great. The book is very, very wordy. It's also confusingly organized, almost like it's not meant to be run at the table, but more as a prep reference. I'll highlight specific instances of this as we go through, but as an example, the book makes multiple references to something called the [I]GM's Reference.[/I] Well, try as I might, searching both the [I]Campaign Book[/I] and the [I]Player's Guide,[/I] I couldn't find the [I]GM's Reference.[/I] So eventually I brute-forced it (searched the [I]Campaign Book)[/I] and found that the [I]GM's Reference[/I] is actually a digital add-on that's only available if you bought the VTT maps, but if you send an e-mail to an e-mail address, they'll shoot you a copy. And hey, that'd be great if the [I]GM's Reference[/I] was just a few cleaned up tables or something, but this document contains the inspirational media, potential content warnings, customizing backgrounds, modifying difficulty for party size, etc. It's kind of important! And it's free and just an email away, but why the hell wasn't it included in the original document? Y'all already hit 500 pages! The writing is decent, but again, wordy. This should have been far fewer pages than they ultimately used. For example, there are a ton of references to a character who, explicitly, will never be directly encountered during the adventure. And like, that's great? But also, if the PCs never encounter something, nor are acted upon by it, [I]then the something does not exist in the game.[/I] All this crap does is give me more cognitive load to deal with. Just cut the darned character and give me something actionable. However, the art is absolutely sumptuous. Like, it's so good it makes me [I]mad.[/I] Look at this feisty murder-queen: [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/40kBFqT.png[/IMG][/CENTER] I immediately want to know who the hell this lady is! What is her deal? And it pisses me off that this is the title page of the book, [I]so there's no additional detail.[/I] Please call out your suggestions, because I'm curious what y'all think. So that's my general overall impressions of the text. I'll be proceeding in my usual chapter-by-chapter fashion through the rest of the book's 12 chapters and seven appendices, because I hate myself and seek misery rather than happiness (I'm kidding - it's because I'm a workaholic). Also, I'm stealing this bit from Libertad's excellent review of [URL='https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610109-Let-s-Read-Odyssey-of-the-Dragonlords']Odyssey of the Dragonlords:[/URL] [SPOILER="Bioware Trope Alert!"] There's a ton of stuff in this adventure that borrows heavily from well-established Bioware tropes. If you're a fan of [I]Dragon Age[/I] or [I]Mass Effect,[/I] keep an eye out for these to see how these tropes get implemented at the tabletop! [/SPOILER] [/QUOTE]
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